One February Friday

Where did February go? Being in the middle of mixing an EP it feels like time accelerated. The fact that it is now Saturday demonstrates this quite nicely. Time burns up at twice the rate during the creative process even simply the attempt at it.

The Creative Process: Under the Influence

Does what you listen to when writing or mixing have any real effect on what you make?

Perhaps it effects everyone in different ways. I feel that what I listen to makes me do the opposite – so I feel the need to be careful when things are working. If I hear something that I love then I tend to unconsciously try to emulate it and noticing this I then go in completely the opposite direction.

It sounds a bit conceited when you feel that your ‘vision’ is so precious anything can knock it off course. As if your style is so fragile it can’t withstand outside influence. Not much of a creative process if it’s so delicate. But it’s not really that – it’s that you may not discover something that comes from following your train of thought uninterrupted. After a while ideas cascade into one another and new things happen that are better than what you intended. They are almost not really your vision – they are events that you can choose to own or make use of.

Sometimes listening to something for reference makes you doubt your choices. And – maybe for good reason – maybe the choices are questionable – but if you are changing something you loved because of a reference then that is almost a betrayal of the process you embarked on. What’s the point if you are not true to your own ideas?

Escaping yourself

This month I noticed that when I thought something was working I would stop immediately in case I messed it up by one decision too many. Then I’d go and listen to something almost, but not quite, entirely unrelated. Maybe watch or listen to something ambient.

When it wasn’t working I’d listen to something more relevant – maybe not in the same genre but with the same energy or ambience.

So the tracks that grabbed my attention this month were Italo Brutalo’s Heartware from the album of the same name – on bandcamp.

 

 

And then this from Micro.Tron Insubordina2

Also found a lot of love for Rival Consoles remix of In Midibu by Stavroz

 

The Creative Process: Over the influence

We accept different levels of indulgence from different disciplines. Thinking about the author Haruki Murakami, getting up at 4am, brewing a pot of coffee and sitting down to write while the world sleeps. Does he sit reading the novels of all the great writers as he sips his black coffee? Of course not. He’s locked into his own thoughts, writing until something takes shape, ideas form slowly and narrative threads emerge.

Why is there some stigma about locking yourself away as a musician or a producer? It can be seen as an indulgence but what’s the problem with that? Would you rather the Aphex Twin style of working isolated from the world to avoid any subconscious influence or do you want the Ed Sheeran method spending hours pouring over streaming stats to work out what people want? Seems pretty clear to me.

Doesn’t mean everyone will emerge with work to rival Aphex Twin but it does mean you get something unique or at the very least honest every time. Whatever form the creative process takes it should be about finding yourself and/or being true to yourself

 

Don’t despair

When it all goes wrong there is always my vinyl copy of Leonard Cohen’s Songs Of Love and Hate. Usually motivates me for some bizarre reason. I’ve played it quite a few times this month.

 

Links:

Italo Brutalo on bandcamp: Heartware

Micro.tron:  Insubordina2 De La Empalagosa Melod​í​a EP 2022

Stavros on bandcamp: Stavroz

My bandcamp: Tobias

My instagram – for little bits of magic spotted in the shadows: TobiasdeZaldua